Santapon Is Coming
by NullNoMore
Summary: A Secret Santa gift, for TorchicFlame who likes H.B., Irina, Police skells, and Sylvalum. 3 out of 4 can't be bad. I just hope they like Nopon, because it has a lot of that too. No swears, slight anxiety. All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, who gave us so many Nopon, thank you for that.


**Santapon Is Coming**

 **a/n: This is a secret Santa gift from XCX Twitterville, for the most excellent TorchicFlame, who likes H.B., Irina, Police skells, and Sylvalum. Well, 3 out of 4 can't be bad.**

 **Too many adorable Nopon, some anxiety.**

 **All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but Krich and Moonnom live in my brain.**

* * *

"Remind me again why we're the ones doing this?" grumbled Irina. "Instead of having someone like, say, Gwin going out and making a fool of themselves?"

"Because the lesser Nopon caravans in Noctilum are well hidden and therefore finding them requires a Pathfinder with extraordinary skills. And recent reports about Prone activity led the brass to think an added escort might be useful. Unlikely, but it didn't seem worth the argument."

"I wouldn't start talking smack if I were flying the thing you're in." The thing in question was a modified Police skell. Instead of the standard black and white, the paint job was bright red, with details that resembled a black belt and boots and white trim. The exhaust system had been tweaked to jingle instead of hum. Best (or worst) of all: the cruiser's siren had been switched for a deep robotic laugh. "Ho. Ho. Ho." In short, a Santaskell. H.B.s friend had been gleeful about the modifications. "I'll have to switch it all back, and before the first mission after you get back, but this is totally worth it," she'd said when they'd gone to pick the skell up. "Totally."

"You look ridiculous," Irina needled him again.

"Would you prefer to be wearing a Santa suit yourself?" H.B. said distractedly. He'd slowed his eye-watering vehicle and set it down gently in front of the cave that housed Dodonga Caravan, home to the main population of Noctilum Nopon.

"No thank you. I'm not demanding equity when it comes to stupidity."

"And I'm not compromising the effectiveness of my armor, even in the name of diplomacy and cultural outreach."

"Amen to that." Irina settled her skell next to his. "Come on, hit the siren and let's give the kiddies a thrill."

And indeed, the littlepon had been thrilled. They'd danced around the peculiar machine, demanding candy and more candy, hopping and twirling and wearing locally-sourced pompom hats in seasonal reds and greens. Hats that H.B. and Irina soon found themselves also wearing. The caravan leader had insisted. "Take hats and make mamapons less worried you come for littlepon later."

"Why on Earth, uh, why on Mira would they think we'd take their kids?!" sputtered Irina.

"I believe it has something to do with concerns about obligations and gift giving," H.B. said.

"Handsome BLADE correct," chattered Koko. "Nopon only make deal or make loan, not gift. Candy non-returnable unless littlepon included. Many scary tales to warn littlepon eat no food from strangers."

"But you must give your kids food all the time!" Irina protested.

"Give food, really give, only for family," Koko insisted.

"But your son, Tatsu," and here Irina did her best not to sound too disgusted with the useless lump that cluttered up the barracks kitchen, "he's always handing out treats to Lin's team."

Koko nodded sagely. "Exactly."

Another wave of excited littlepon stormed up to them, demanding gifts from Big Big Santapon and big ho of ho'ing. H.B. climbed into the pilot's capsule and obliged. Irina tried to decide exactly how she was now indebted to Tatsu, but gave up since it took all her combat skills to keep certain littlepon from grabbing the presents intended for their siblings. Nothing much changes from species to species when candy and little brothers are involved, she thought.

"Very successful. I'm sure the ECP will be pleased with Koko's review," H.B. said smugly as they left the area.

"You asked her to send a nice note, didn't you?"

"Of course. She'll probably mention you too."

"Whatever. Where are we headed next?"

"Ah. Yes." H.B. was suspiciously hesitant. "The next caravan is quite small, only a single extended family. Koko had … concerns about it."

Irina grew instantly suspicious. "What are you leaving out?"

"I'm certain there is nothing to be concerned about. However, their last location was close to increased enemy activity. And Koko did mention that they had been out of contact for a week."

"Isn't that normal? They _are_ nomads, after all. Or is something wrong?"

"Koko seemed to think both." She heard H.B. sigh over the comm link. "I believe we have found the true meaning of Christmas, or at least the reason for our presence."

It took her a moment, but then Irina started to laugh. "Of all the …. BLADE didn't want to look bad with a wild goose chase, but they didn't want to ignore a request from a major Nopon leader. So they send us with candy and guns and it's up to us to decide which to use."

"Yes, that seems to be the case."

"I cannot believe it. We're now in 'Die Hard: Miran Edition!'"

Xcxcxcxcxchohohoxcxcxcxcxc

They'd needed all of H.B.'s skills to find the tiny caravan, or rather, the remnants of a caravan. Irina would have flown over the site without a thought, but H.B. had noticed something. Vines that curled unnaturally from heat, a blackened smear on the leaves from violence that was not organic, a cleared space where no grass grew. They found debris from the encampment, already returning to nature, but no inhabitants.

"No. NO! Not this! I hate this planet!" shouted Irina, kicking a shattered lime-colored Nopon comm device.

"Shhhhh." H.B. raised a gloved hand. "Wait." When nothing happened, he called out with surprising gentleness. "Take heart. We were sent here by your people to help."

Irina would never have guessed that three Nopon were hiding in a tuft of spiked plants only a meter from them. They were all adults, a male and two females, and while they didn't look injured they were clearly distressed. The largest spoke with hesitation. "Dodonga remembers this poor group?"

"You are not forgotten," H.B. assured them. "Can you tell me what happened?"

All hesitation ended. "They took our creche! Our bestests! Yesterday the uglies came and THEY TOOK OUR LITTLEPON!"

Irina had to respect H.B.'s ability to disentangle the wailings and weepings of two distressed parents and an auntie. Something about his questioning got through their anguish and revealed the facts they needed. A small party of enemy Prone had found the camp unattended while the adults had been foraging. Everything had been destroyed, and the children, four in all, two mere infants, had been taken away.

Irina said nothing, barely able to stand the anguish. When they quieted, she choked out, "I'm going to find them and kill them. I promise." H.B. shook his head slightly, and Irina glared at him. "Don't shush me. I'm going ..."

"If the children are still alive, and I hope there is still that chance, we need to act very carefully. So that is precisely how we will proceed. If any team can return your littlepon, we are that team."

"And if not?" asked the auntie, gulping loudly.

"Then what my companion said will be in effect."

Xcxcxcxcxcohnoohnoxcxcxcxcxc

Finding the Prone had taken zero Pathfinder skills. Even Gwin could probably has spotted it, thought Irina. A group of conical metallic tents, pitched across from a larger enemy stronghold.

"There's never been Prone in this base before," Irina whispered. The two of them were lying flat on their bellies behind the thick grass surrounding a small lotus tree sapling. Sapling was a misnomer; those trees grew to the heights of BLADE tower, and this baby was taller than the skells they'd parked even further away. They themselves were far enough from the temporary camp that Irina could barely smell the poisonous lagoon just beyond it.

"It isn't unheard of," H.B. whispered back. He was looking intently through field glasses. "No Nopon visible, although those supply containers are suspicious."

Irina made a decision. "We need a diversion. I make things go boom, you slink in and peek at the presents under the tree. Any suggestions?"

Before H.B. could start to argue with her plan, they heard a group moving towards them. Irina had her rifle out in a flash, but held her fire. Something was wrong about the approaching group. Too busy trying to be quiet to be anything but loud, and the speakers seemed too short to be Prone, or even the slightly stockier Marnuck.

"Stop weeping, sisters of Moonnom. I, the brave Krich Gotaam, will find your parents. Somehow." The response was continued snivelling, in stereo.

"Moonnom believe in friend Krich. Most excellent friend. But legs little bit tired from carrying other brother."

Before the two BLADEs could decide their response, the new party tripped, literally tripped, over the prone (pardon the expression) humans. Two Nopon babies, no bigger than fluffy bowling balls, rolled into H.B.'s arms, whereupon their crying instantly switched to cooing.

"Give them back this instant!" The young Prone, it could be nothing but that, had regained his feet faster than the adults. He grabbed the teenyweenypon back from H.B. They promptly started crying again.

"For pity's sake, let him hold them," snapped Irina. "He's got a way with Nopon females. And we don't need anyone else crashing this party, am I right?"

The Prone hesitated a second, then reluctantly passed the infants to H.B. The oldest Nopon child tried to pass the brotherpon he'd been carrying on his back over to Irina, but she passed him right back. The two parties examined each other. Krich reached maybe to her shoulder, and he was wearing a patchwork of light Prone armor, all of it much too big for him. His friend, Moonnom, was buttercream-colored and about the size of most Nopon kids. The other children were obviously much younger. Krich picked up the unwanted little brotherpon and cuddled him a second. Little Brotherpon didn't seem to care who carried him, so long as he didn't have to walk. Once free of "he's not heavy actually he is heavy he's my brother", Moonnom put his earwing in his mouth nervously. The tiny twin girls were blinking ridiculously large eyes at H.B. and simpering.

"So…" Irina started to say.

Krich pushed out his thin chest and shouted wildly at Irina. "I will save my fluffy friends and there is nothing you can do to stop me! Nopon are for cuddling, not eating!" Moonnom nodded furiously and sucked harder on his wing tip.

Irina looked at H.B. but for the moment he was utterly hypnotized by the ittybittypon he was cradling. She took a deep breath and tried to remember everything about being a big sister. "Look, kid. You did great. I'm proud of you." She had to blink suddenly a few times, but she didn't change her bossy tone. "But you can leave it to us. If you go back right now, your folks won't know anything's happened for hours, right?"

Krich nodded, and lowered his face into the tuft of Litte Brotherpon. Moonnom now had both armwings wrapped around Krich's knees. "They only found them because I found them first. We wanted to play," whispered Krich.

"Not friend's fault. Moonnom had fun too," muttered his friend.

Irina looked away toward the Lotus Fortress, then back at the little group. "We can't stay, you know that, kid. But if you ever make it to New Los Angeles, I'll make sure that these kids can meet you there. Ask your folks. Maybe they want to try making friends too."

H.B. might have argued against this offer, but the twins were purring sleepily in his arms. Krich passed Little Brotherpon to Irina, who this time accepted the lazy burden. Then he stooped and squeezed Moonnom so hard that Irina knew for certain Nopon could not have any ribs. "I won't forget my best friend."

"Me neither."

They shouldn't be pushing their luck, thought Irina. She coughed meaningfully and the two separated. Then Moonnom pulled a small necklace from off his neck, the pendant a tiny whirl of bronze. "Friend keep treasure until meet again."

"We may never see each other again, Moonnom," said Krich sadly.

"Same as meet tomorrow. Not know, so maybe okay! If not, then keep. As gift."

* * *

 **a/n: 1) I suspect Flame's Cross may have modded that skell. Could be. 2) My kid named Moonnom. I am constantly indebted to my junior editor.**

 **Merry Christmas**  
 **May all your gifts be given**  
 **with as much heart.**


End file.
